Xboxic refreshes its looks!
After only a few months Xboxic has become a daily habit for many people out there. Thanks to you all for the support and feedback we’ve been getting so far! However, being popular also has its downsides for us: after having started as a hobby site we now feel we have a responsibility towards our users for making the site better every day. One important thing we were unhappy about was the rather basic look of the site. In comes the New And Improved modern look for Xboxic!
Some insiders have already seen it over the last week, and now we’ve enabled it for everyone to use. Most important improvements:
- Nested comments with inline responding.
- Better utilization of available screen space. More info in less pixels, while still not looking crowdy.
- Improved site navigation through tracking recent comments and highlighted sections like the reviews and editorials.
- More attention for our Wiki and forum through activity trackers.
- Related Articles automatically linked from every article.
- Actually work correctly in Safari on Macs.
- Many small layout problems fixed.
We hope you all enjoy the new look of the site. If you don’t, we’re sorry but it isn’t going to change bigtime again anywhere soon, and we do hope you get used to it quickly. If you have any comments/questions, or just want to say I did a great job, use the (nested!) comments below or visit this forum topic. Should you have any problems, please use the forum topic because it allows us more flexibility in responding.
If you really really cannot get used to the new style or just want to have a quick comparison for old time’s sake, you can switch templates using the links in the right sidebar. Please do note that the old template was smaller than the current one and we are not supporting it, so you may run into less-well rendered articles from now on.
Last but not least I want to expressly thank you all again all for bringing us where we are now, and we hope for your continued support!
First!
Jeej
i’m happy with it 
Hahah. Teh l33tness.
Love the soda can.
It’s frikkin’ awesome! Restecpa!
When I submitted the comment it gave me a weird screen. I hit back, and it had submitted fine.
There’s some problems in comments on production, working on it
Yeah baby! Say bye bye to the standard layouts, and hellooowww to the custom-made-for-your-viewing-pleasure-super-duper-cool-new-website!
I Like it,
But please remove the anoying add, no-one actually is gonna click it for a stupid addware screensaver
Got the URL it was going to? I already blocked SmileyCentral and Screensavers.com
Looks nice, guys.
Ok D4V3, cough up some dough for our hosting costs
Looks nice, will play with it more on home network
OMGNESTED
OMGDOUBLENESTED
OMGTRIPLE–ok stop.
aww where’d all the simpleness go?
Down the drain
It’s still the same site, same content, just presented in a more sophisticated way to allow for better ease of use and user interaction. Again, I knew some people would be surprised or like it less than the old layout, but I hope in the end everyone will be happy with the extra features and usability.
Liked the old look better to be honest, this looks messy :-/ Sorry to be the party pooper.
Everyone’s entitled their opinion
I myself had to get used to the new design as well after I’d figured it all out in Photoshop, but after a short while I started liking all the extra info I was giving. Heck, I’m refreshing regularly just to see the Recent Comments tracker change 
umm… yuck.
Just kidding nice work.
hmm it’s alright i guess. the reason i sort of came to the website in the first place is because it was all about the news and wasn’t flashy. guess i’ll have to learn to love it…
The news is still the same and all that is flashy is the features that make you navigate more easily
Nice work. I think you made it more sopisticated and still kept it clean. Come on Curry, lets makeout. Who doesn’t like manlove?
sophisticated*….i still want to kiss you.
Just kidding….maybe.
All of a sudden I feel really uncomfortable.
Or do you feel very comfortable? We’re all mature adults here.
that’s the freakin’ point
Please keep the site simple guys I really liked it the way it was. 99% info, 1% fluff kthx. Keep up the good work!
This is way to junky looking looks to unorganized but I guess its something new and people like new.
For the people that really really hate the new design, check out the “Theme” section in the right sidebar
Do note that we don’t support the old template any more. It’s broken in a few ways and smaller than the new one, so you may be getting rendering problems. We will not be fixing that anymore.
Love the new look!
Much… I don’t know, cooler.
The nesting comments thing is sweet; makes it easier to argue. ;D
I liked how it was before, much simpler IMO, but this isn’t horrible
I can deal with the new look (looks less like a blog - more news centric), but you need to reduce the size of the ads. The ads take up too much real-estate. The page takes up 80% width, and the ads take up approximately 40% width (not to mention height). I know you need the ad revenue, but there are better ways to deal with the ads. Just my opinion of course.
Kudos on the tablesless design; Two suggestions would be to center the ‘page’ div, and reduce the width of the left navigation bar.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks, that was one of the main ideas behind the redesign
Problem is that I am bound by standard sizes. The rectangle on the left is a standard 300×250 banners, and the one on the right is a standard 160×600. No standard sizes = no ads regrettably. However as you may have noticed I have a simply policy on ads: I’m serverside blocking all ads I wouldn’t like to look at myself, and the one on the left collapses ‘away’ when no fitting ads are available. I have not much room for navigation in that respect.
For facts by the way the site uses 976 pixels width, of which 460 for bannering, leaving without margins 500 pixels for the news section. In the old layout the news section was only 468 pixels wide. I cannot make it much wider than 500 even if I *had* the real estate since people cannot read texts too wide.
It even validates completely as XHTML
Be proud of it
Keep up the good work, Curry!
The last was much, much better. This one is to busy on screen, not good for the eye. Reading gets more intensive and more easily tired of it. I’ll go and read my news on MajorNelson’s site combined with xbox360only.nl or xbox360news.com again I think… I hope the old design returns sorry to disturb your party guys…
I’m sorry to hear that, I think it’s just a matter of getting used to it. I found it to be a little busy on the eye too when I first saw it but I like it all the better now.
I have to agree with some people here — the last design was much better. Sure, it was standard, but the layout’s focus was on the news and nothing more.
The current layout has focus issues due to the increases contrast between the left and center column. The left column just screams for a lot of attention. While I can understand the decision to bring the information in the left column much more up front, I think it’s too much. A suggestion would be to increase white space and move the left column to the right hand side of the news, putting primary focus (at least in western cultures) to the news.
Typography wise I also prefered the increased size of the news headline, as it makes it easier to scan the page. I also prefer the bit of increased line height in the older version.
As for the items on the right hand side below the ads, I didn’t even see them until someone mentioned the Theme section there. It’s below the pagefold and a visitor would only come across it by accident.
Anyway, just some of my thoughts. I’ll be using the Classic theme, so I am happy to see that’s still there. As long as you guys keep up with the great news coverage, I am a happy man
Hey Jeroen, recognize your name as webdev guru, didn’t know you were also a visitor here
As for the decision to ‘hide’ certain info on the right hand side underneath the banner, that was a conscious decision to move very infrequently used items there, while keeping the important things to track on the left side. Our reviews for example weren’t getting nearly enough attention, so that’s why they are in the tracker now.
I’m not feeling this look, although I read most of the news through an RSS feed so it doesn’t really matter much I guess.
looks great.looks pro!
@ Jeroen Mulder
Thnx, I missed the Classic option, I’ll use that option instead
DAMN THAT’S REALLY A GOOD OPTION LEAVE IT THERE PLEASE
I am a glad man again for today reading the classic setup which my eyes like better and gives no headacke
Liked the old look WAY better…
And thanks for the classic option, it’s so much better
liked old beter
And here he goes and puts a Dreamcast-like swirl on the New & Improved-graphic…
Hadn’t noticed that
Well I kinda like the new design, I just need to get used to it.
For the ppl who don’t like it, switch back to classic mode.
Curry has always liked backwards compatibility hehehe
*runs*
Curry, guru? Heh, that’s too much credit. But yes, I am a frequent and mostly lurking visitor. Xboxic is in my top list of frequented Xbox related websites
I completely understand the wish to move that information up front, As with any interface design there are so many solutions for every problem. I wouldn’t want to turn this into an endless debate though, but I am using Classic. Perhaps because I am not like the average Xboxic visitor — my primary interest is the latest news and nothing more really.
I like the new look. Xboxic is a great site to visit. I clicked a link to an article on the site a few months ago and was impressed enough to add to my favourites. Been visiting the site everyday since. You do a great job, well done and good luck with future plans.
Thanks, that’s what we like to hear
Im the same, it’s a brilliant website.
Put the “Most recent” news column on the right, it’s more user-friendlier then
Sorry man, I’m using classic. When that support becomes too problematic, I’ll end up somewhere else.
Love classic. Don’t crowd it up. The animated ads are particularly annoying. If you get rid of those, I might learn to accept the new version. It’s a fine balance between ads and content, but animated ads are the bane in my opinion.
I think you became popular with classic for a reason.
I haven’t changed anything in the ads? You are getting the *exact* same ads on Modern as on Classic. And as said before, I try to keep the site clean of irritating ads like SmileyCentral and ScreenSavers.com. If an ad bothers you for a good reason (flashing, irritating sound or anything), notify me and I’ll see whether I agree. Popups and popunders are all disabled by definition.
I have a faint sparkle of hope that the content is what made us popular
I’m surprised that so many went back to the “classic” look… Sure it was nice and clean, but this has to offer so much more.
But I have to say that I’m a pretty big banner hater, but this is how this site will stay alive!